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Page 40
brought to Kingsclere and fell into Lord John's handsit was before he was king, of course. He wished to marry me to a man of his own choosing and use my lands as he saw fit. I told him he was too late, that Simon had me already. Then he said," suddenly Alinor began to giggle like a little girl, "he said that he would not have picked the budin deference to the man he had chosen for mebut that since the flower was open, he would sup some of its nectar."
Ian had looked away, seeing where the tale was leading and not wishing to embarrass Alinor. His nostrils spread and then pinched with distaste. "Filth," he muttered. "Did he force you?"
"Would he hate me if he had?" Alinor laughed merrily, and Ian looked at her, realizing that the little choked squeaks he had heard were not tears. "He called me a frightened little bird," she sputtered, "andand he chucked me under the chin."
"But how did you preserve your virtue?"
"Virtue?" Alinor spat. "Virtue had nothing to do with it! Stupid clod! He made me lose my temper, calling me a little bird and chucking me under the chin as if I were a maidservant. I rammed him in the belly with an embroidery frame." Alinor began to laugh again. "I think I may have caught his upstanding member, and when he ceased writhing with pain, I drove him from the room with a lighted torch and my knife."
Ian stared down at her with open mouth and glazed eyes.
"If only he had not made me angry," Alinor sighed, shaking her head remorsefully. "It would have been more politic to yield, but he did not give me time to think!"
"Alinor," Ian gasped, "have you no morals?"
First she laughed, which did not really surprise Ian, but then she burst into tears. He bent over her, cursing himself for forgetting that she could be overly sensitive to everything just now.

 
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